--- 
title: About
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What is it?
=====

Parsers help computers derive meaning from arbitrary text. And Jison helps you build parsers!

Jison is essentially a clone of the parser generator [Bison](http://dinosaur.compilertools.net/#bison) (thus Yacc,) but in JavaScript. It includes its own lexical analyzer modeled after [Flex](http://dinosaur.compilertools.net/#flex).

It was originally created by Zach Carter to help study for a Compilers course.
